Friday, June 12, 2009

Faith is not a virtue.

“Christianity, just as much as Islam, teaches children that unquestioned faith is a virtue. You don’t have to make the case for what you believe. If somebody announces that it is part of his faith, the rest of society, whether of the same faith, or another, or of none, is obliged, by ingrained custom, to ‘respect’ it without question; respect it until the day it manifests itself in a horrible massacre like the the destruction of the World Trade Center, or the London or Madrid bombings.

Then there is a great chorus of disownings, as clerics and ‘community leaders’ (who elected them, by the way?) line up to explain that this extremism is a perversion of the ‘true’ faith. But how can there be a perversion of faith, if faith, lacking objective justification, doesn’t have any demonstrable standard to pervert?” –The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins, 2006, page 306.


“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” – Voltaire.

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